St. George Bank (AU) opts for Clear2Pay’s Open Payment Framework

Bank Payment Hub - Payment Execution being implemented

Brussels/Sydney, 2 April, 2008 – Clear2Pay, the international technology provider of next generation payment solutions for financial institutions announces they have entered into a contract to implement their Open Payment Framework (OPF) technology at St. George Bank, Australia’s fifth largest retail bank. The Payment Execution Module is planned to be implemented in early 2009 and will replace the bank’s current Bi Lateral Exchange system that processes bulk payment file instructions between the bank’s systems, clients and other financial institutions.

The solution is based upon Clear2Pay’s Open Payment Framework (OPF), a next generation payment system that will give St. George a competitive advantage in delivering state-of-the-art, flexible payments products and services to its customers.

Paul Newham, Acting Group Executive Technology and Operations at St. George comments: “The time has come to rationalise our existing legacy systems and replace them with future proof technology that will offer greater efficiency and lower total cost of ownership. In evaluating the various options, we decided to work with Clear2Pay for a number of reasons. First of all their Service Oriented Architecture (SOA) based technology gives us the scalability, re-use and flexibility we look for. Secondly they are a proven vendor and their people have outstanding domain knowledge. St. George prides itself on customer service and we require our suppliers to work with us to deliver that superior service. Clear2Pay understands this and that makes the fit complete.”

Warren Gardiner, GM Australasia for Clear2Pay adds: “We are delighted to go through this SOA-based payment execution implementation in Australia with St. George Bank. In addition to all the benefits the replacement had to bring, they will be able to significantly increase their service levels with the enhanced functionality. The visibility and transparency of the process has been improved for end-users, there is much better management of returns and refusals with less manual intervention and notifications. Finally controls and reports have been made more user-friendly and efficient as well. We look forward to a long and mutually rewarding relationship with St. George.”

About Clear2Pay
Clear2Pay is an innovative financial technology company focused on delivering globally applicable solutions for secure, timely electronic payments. Headquartered in Brussels, Belgium, the company facilitates banks and financial organisations in their provision of payments services. Clear2Pay's technology helps to reduce transactions processing costs, and to deliver new, compelling payment services in a competitive way. Clear2Pay's payment solutions offer organisations easy, branded ways for their customers to pay online: from complex trade-supporting business-to-business environments, through e-commerce applications, to retail payments and remittance services. Functions embrace payments origination, reporting, linkage with back-office processing systems, clearing, netting and settlement. Clients include global and major regional financial institutions such as ING, SEB Kort, VISA, MasterCard, ABN AMRO, Nordea, Abbey National, Fortis Bank, ANZ and Commonwealth Bank. Clear2Pay operates out of Belgium, France, the Netherlands, Poland, Spain, United Kingdom, United States, Australia, China, Malaysia and Singapore and currently employs 400 staff.
More information is available on www.clear2pay.com

About St. George Bank
St.George is Australia's fifth largest retail bank and one of the top 20 publicly listed companies in Australia, employing over 9,000 people. Its national operations span all aspects of the financial industry including retail banking, institutional & business banking, and wealth management. At the Bank's core is a close relationship with its customers and this remains the cornerstone of future strategies, an important tradition that distinguishes St.George from other Australian Banks. Founded in 1937 as a housing based financial institution, St.George built a reputation as Australia's foremost building society, before achieving full banking status in July 1992. St.George's core strategy is one of organic growth, harnessing the potential in the franchise and building on its strengths and capabilities. These strengths include a track record of superior credit quality, positive customer service ratings relative to the industry, and product management and product innovation capabilities.

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For more information:

Clear2Pay NV/SA
Conny Dorrestijn - VP Marketing and Communications
E:
M: +31 651 06 72 01